A Year Traveling in Europe During Covid-19

By Rae Akers

After 30 years in Florida with a successful career in finance, Rae and her husband of 18 years pulled up roots to travel full time in Europe before their ultimate goal of motorhome ownership in the United States. The Covid-19 pandemic threw a monkey wrench into their plans. Although they endured lockdown number one in Hertsberge, Belgium and lockdown number two in Huttenheim, Germany, they appreciated the ability to travel and act like tourists with no other Americans present. Rae has no writing background but decided to blog her travels on Facebook and Grandpad. A Year Traveling in Europe During Covid-19 is a compilation of her travel posts and a how-to to achieve your travel goals. Travel along with Rae and Scott while they navigate the pandemic, changing rules in northern Europe and discover tools they use to find points of interest to visit.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Newman Springs Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 23, 2022
• ISBN: 9781638819691

Book preview

Chapter 1

Getting Ready

My husband of seventeen years, Scott, and I did what many friends and family thought could not be done. We sold everything and moved to Europe with a one-year tourist visa.

When we made our retirement plans, we originally wanted to buy a big recreational vehicle (RV) and tour around the United States to state and federal parks and Bureau of Land Management parks and visit family and friends across the United States. Retirement came faster than we expected due to unforeseen circumstances. Scott and I huddled together and discussed the option of going to Europe for a year first. His idea. I could not believe my ears. Music was playing, and it was a beautiful song. Europe for a year. What more could a nomad like me want? We could wait on the RV purchase (our original retirement plan) until after our return to the United States. RV amenities improve each year, and we keep waiting for our level of purchase model to catch up with the new features we desire.

So we picked a month to leave and started making plans. Having not planned a massive move in over thirty years, I started making lists. The lists had embedded lists. The lists got longer and longer. I set priority dates for each task as I added more tasks. As tasks were completed, I color-coded them, marked the date complete, if I remembered, and moved them to the bottom of the list. Scott and I worked as a well-oiled team to complete the tasks. Divide and conquer.

At some point, we needed to pick a drop-dead date to move. Everything had to be completed by then. My lists included due dates that kept us on track and periodized our tasks on a monthly basis. We planned out almost one year to departure. I figured it would take that long to sort out everything that needed to be done. This move was not meant to overwhelm us with tasks that all had to be done in short order. Scott had never moved with this much planning before while I had served in the United States Navy before moving to Jacksonville, Florida, and had planned long-distance moves in the past. But I had never planned such an extensive move where I was responsible for all aspects of the move. We were not in our twenties anymore with few obligations and possessions to sort through. There was a lot we could get wrong, and we knew we could have problems later if the proper research was not conducted during the planning phase. So we researched and modified our plans as needed.

Scott’s niece told us about a low-cost travel site that flew between Orlando and London. That sounded good because we knew we wanted to see most all the Schengen and European Union areas—more on that later. I did check out several websites but found JustFly was indeed the lowest cost of the flight itineraries I could locate.

In hindsight, you get what you pay for. Low cost translates to lack of service, and during the pandemic, we had a fight on our hands after our September return flight was canceled by the airlines. Our return in September was to celebrate our mom’s birthdays, not to return for good. After several hours on the phone with the travel website, we scheduled a flight for December. That flight was subsequently canceled too. In the future, I will book directly with the airlines and bypass the draw of low-cost websites.

Scott researched several traveling mailboxes and got recommendations from full-time travelers on YouTube. It came down to cost, number of scans each month, and the ability to forward mail. We also needed a virtual mailing address. Our virtual mailbox address location went bankrupt a few weeks before our departure and was changed to a location in another city in Florida. This caused additional work for us to contact credit cards, Division of Motor Vehicles (DMV), and all the other businesses, friends, and family of the new mailing address. I believe the most important business to change your mailing address is with your bank and how it is tied to your zip code. There will always be businesses you forget to notify, so it is best to keep up on your lists. We found that there were several incomplete address changes that caused problems later.

We went to the election office to ensure they had the correct mailing address, physical address, signatures on file, and our request for email ballots. The physical address is particularly important since it ties you to the district that will send correspondents with elections and amendments for that district.

The signatures are extremely important. For the 2016 elections, my mail-in ballot was returned to me because the signature on file did not match. It turned out to be a good thing for me because I changed my vote and sent it back in.

I’m not sure what is going to happen with the 2020 elections since at the time of this writing, the whole country may move to mail-in ballots. Florida, my current home state, allows mail-in absentee ballots and email ballots because it has many years of working through the address issue.

I was lucky to need a renewed driver’s license in the year of my move to Europe. Make sure you have a year or two left before renewal is required. My driver’s license also had the issue of physical address versus mailing address. We were in the process of selling our house, so we could keep the address. I suppose you could do the same if you currently live in an apartment. Just keep in mind that the mailing address is the traveling mailbox, not the physical address.

Next, we went by the following criteria to determine which credit cards to bring with us: ease of requesting a replacement card should ours be lost or stolen, cash-back percentages, and ease of dealing with customer service. We chose Citi cards since they are tied to Costco, and we like their cash-back program. We also like that since we will be out of the country when the Costco rewards checks are issued to us, we can wait until we return to the United States and have the checks reissued. Costco only allows you to redeem their cash-back checks at Costco, not at a bank, and the checks expire on December 31 of the year issued.

I was concerned that we failed to cash the 2019 cash-back checks since we were unable to travel back to the United States to cash the checks. Upon calling Costco’s customer service department, we found out that we had cashed the checks just weeks before our departure. We are all good for the redeemed 2020 checks but may have an issue receiving and cashing the 2021 check rebates if we cannot return to the United States by December 31, 2021.

We sent a request at Christmastime to all family and friends to discontinue mail to our physical address. We explained our plans to sell the house and that we could no longer receive physical mail. I think it took until this time before many people believed that this was really happening. You can image that close family and friends were concerned for us and wanted details about communicating with us and where we planned to go.

Should you ever decide on such a monumental move, be patient with these people. They love you and will miss you.

We canceled some memberships and suspended some. Canceling a membership is easy when you are still in the United States. Scott’s Massage Envy suspension is another matter. They suspended payment for six months, but after the six months, they started charging us again. Scott called to get another six-month suspension, but we continued to receive debit payments. I finally had to dispute the payments with Citi Card and canceled the membership.

In order to obtain a long-stay visa in Europe, you are required to have Schengen health insurance. They stipulate the insurance must include a zero deductible. We chose an option that does not cover preexisting conditions. Unless you need procedures done in the United States, you can cancel health insurance there.

After researching and watching YouTube’s Technomania, we bought the Google Fi phones. They have a unique technology to give you better coverage by intelligently shifting between networks. Google Fi has full-speed hotspot tethering and offers affordable calls to and from international destinations. There is no need to purchase sim cards when you cross country borders. We receive a message from Google, Welcome to X country.

There can always be issues with any phone. Sometimes Scott’s phone will not complete an international call and mine will complete the call. Scott has spent time with tech support, but we have not figured out the problem. My phone overheated in the summer months in Germany. Despite believing we were not going to be able to replace the phone with another Google Fi phone, we found that the German store Saturn had several models. Another benefit is that you can change phones seamlessly at home and not rely on the store to transfer your phone.

European TV stations seldom have English-speaking programs other than BBC. We chose to bring a streaming box with us. Sure, it requires data to stream, but just make sure your lodging provides free Wi-Fi. One of the first things we do when we move into a new home or apartment is to log in to the Wi-Fi to ensure we have access. We can also record our favorite programs on the streaming device.

When we sold our home in Florida, we had every intention of purchasing a new home upon our return to the United States. Not a traditional home but a motorhome. It was difficult enough to give away and sell our stuff. There were plenty of things we own that could be used in a motorhome, including towels, dishes, silverware, clothes, and tools. There were also sentimental items that we just could not part with. These were the items we moved into a storage unit.

Be sure to have the unit payment post automatically. Our storage unit was sold midyear to another company, which caused problems. The previous company failed to provide the new company with all the data needed to bill us, which created a delinquent situation. Once we sorted that out, I found out that the new company was charging us for the required insurance. I had purchased a third-party insurance and had provided the document to the previous company. Just another document that failed to transfer to the new company. I would suggest you sign up on the company website to maintain contact. Future issues can then be dealt with via email.

We paid off all debts, so the only bills we pay now are the credit cards and other miscellaneous bills that come up along the way.

We chose to move all our assets to Schwab since their platform includes checking and financial assistance. We have not been unhappy with their performance (double negative intended). Any questions sent to Schwab are answered timely, which gives me confidence in Schwab.

We were fortunate that the date we left the United States was mid-February 2020. That gave me a chance to gather all my tax documents and file the current tax year. I started my relationship with this tax firm the previous year so that we could work through any issues that might arise due to our absence from the United States. It did not matter that we had arranged for digital signatures in advance; they still required a physical signature for an amended return (which we needed to file). So much for trying to resolve issues before they happen.

We have the Costco Citi credit cards that offer cash back. Once a year, on your membership anniversary, Costco sends a cash-back check along with your bill. You bring the check to Costco, and if the check is over $500, customer service reissues another check to be cashed in the store. Since we have a virtual mailbox, we do not receive physical mail. We spoke to Costco to find out how we could still cash our rewards check. Even though there is a Costco in London, you cannot cash the US rewards check there. The solution is to wait until we return to the United States, have Costco reissue the check, and cash it then and there. Problem solved if you return to the United States before year-end. We planned to return in September for Scott’s mom’s one hundredth birthday. That did not work out because of COVID-19. More on that later.

Our house had not been updated in years. We had to replace the roof and the flooring throughout the house, paint inside and out after replacing some boards on the outside, update the kitchen with new countertops, and add an eye-catching backsplash. We also updated the garden to ensure good curb appeal. We did a lot of the work ourselves and hired our nephew for the heavy-labor items, which was most of the work. We added value by updating the kitchen and bathrooms first. We took about a year to complete all the work in the house. This way, we were able to enjoy some of the upgrades before listing the house.

The first mistake we made was thinking we could save the commission fee by contracting with one of the firms that say they can sell your house for a 2 percent commission. We got what we paid for. After agreeing to a list price, they immediately told us to lower the price. Granted, the flooring was not changed until after I fired the first firm and hired a real realtor. I interviewed three realtors and decided to hire the firm that I was most comfortable with. They agreed to stage the house for free.

I believe you should have an idea of the value of your home before asking the realtor for their analysis. Often, realtors design their reports to you based on what the county assessor has in their database, even when you know the data is incorrect. After informing the realtor of the county assessor’s incorrect data, the realtor was helpless to create a report on the correct information.

The new realtor held a weekend of open houses. We received a couple of offers. When we started negotiating the final terms, I felt our realtor was not strong enough to stand up to the purchaser’s realtor. See, the realtors have a game where upon the results of the home inspection, the purchaser’s realtor will pick on one aspect of the report and will request a portion of the repair or replacement be used to credit the amount due by the purchaser. My realtor, not wanting to lose the sale, tried to pressure us to accept the terms. I felt that the realtors were using me as a pawn. This was money that would reduce the bottom-line profit. I knew that the purchasers were not going to replace the windows, in our case. I asked my realtor who she worked for. Me, of course. I asked her to channel me and stand up to the purchaser’s realtor. Several hours went by. The purchasers wrote us a letter apologizing for the tactic and assured us they loved the house. We received the asking amount.

A month before departure, we approached CarMax for an offer on our extra vehicle. Their offer was reasonable and was valid for one week. We were able to sell the vehicle on our schedule.

Have you rented a vehicle to find out it had flaws? In the past ten years, we have rented vehicles with the following issues: alarm inexplicably sounds out when you are sitting in the car with the keys next to you, unsafe tires (bare threads), windshield wipers broken, the car just stops running, unable to start car, car seats that were nonadjustable, and many more issues.

Renting and turning in a vehicle can be cumbersome. We arrived in Las Vegas a few years ago to find they had no cars available. There was a long line of sad-faced customers. Or the rental company does not have the vehicle you requested. Large suitcases do not fit in a compact car even when it is the only car available.

In the United States, some rentals are not allowed to change state or, in the case of Europe, country lines. That would be a problem for us since we planned to travel as much as possible in Europe.

If you were staying in a location for a few weeks or a few months, renting a vehicle could be advantageous. But be aware that most cars in Europe are manual transmissions. Driving a manual for the first time in fifteen years from an airport in a busy city is not the right move. Most people would have to practice in the United States before arriving in Europe. You may get some dirty stares when stalling the car in the airport parking lot. Scott and I both grew up driving manual transmissions, but that was not our goal for our Europe trip.

We thought about renting a camper van instead of a car. On our last vacation to Europe in 2019, we went in search of some campgrounds to get a feel for the quality of living in an RV in a campground. We found out that European campgrounds were not like US campgrounds where you have a campfire and have space between campsites. Europeans purchase €10,000 pop-up tents that they tow to the campground, and the buffers are either nonexistent or consist of a short hedge.

That was when we made the decision to ship our own van to Europe.

Shipping vehicles to Europe takes a lot of research and perseverance. The vehicle cannot be older than seven years old and must be clear of all debts (free titled). Plan on time to pay off the remaining balance long before shipping the vehicle.

In Florida, once a vehicle is paid off, you must go to the DMV to obtain the title. Give them three to four weeks after payoff to obtain the necessary documentation from the lender.

A copy of the title must be sent in advance to the broker and presented upon pickup. Again, plan for the time this takes.

Oops. We only renewed our van’s registration for one year. We will have to scramble in December to renew it again, this time for a two-year period.

Once we received our vehicle in Antwerp, we had several people draw our attention to the lack of the front license plate (Florida does not have a front license). It became such an issue that one gentleman particularly jumped into the front seat to explain that we needed a front license. Early in our travels we were stopped in a roadblock when Belgium shut down and closed its borders. The policeman informed us that we needed a front license. We asked how we could obtain such a license. He did not have an answer to that. He said it would be difficult/impossible. To remedy this problem, we went to a local vinyl printing shop with a picture of our license. The proprietor was able to stretch the picture to fit the required dimensions of the European license. For €20, he printed and applied the license to the front of our van. Now we get stares because our van is registered in Florida—only here, they know there should not be any US citizens traveling due to the travel restrictions for Americans.